1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to variants of an antimicrobial peptide, polynucleotides encoding the variants, methods of producing the variants, and methods of using the variants.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several classes of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been described in literature, examples of which include defensins and alpha-helical peptides.
The present invention provides variants of an antimicrobial peptide isolated from Arenicola marina, and described in WO 2007/023163.
The variant antimicrobial peptides of the present invention exhibit improved antimicrobial activity as compared to the parent antimicrobial peptide. In particular, the variants exhibit improved antimicrobial activity in the presence of serum and blood proteins. Another advantage of the variant peptides of the invention is a reduced protein binding e.g. to serum and blood proteins, which results in an improved bioavailability as compared to the parent antimicrobial peptide.